[Kabar-indonesia] 7 Indonesians await verdicts in killings of 2 Americans at US-owned

[Joyo at aol.com]

gold mine

Note: The news service is well on its way to becoming fully
operational once again, but a few more days will be needed
before the optimum level is reached.

also: Exclusive Report [sent earlier]

Associated Press 
November 7, 2006

7 Indonesians await verdicts in killings of 2 Americans at
US-owned gold mine

IRWAN FIRDAUS

Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ An Indonesian court was set to
issue verdicts Tuesday for seven men accused of killing two
American teachers at a U.S.-owned gold mine in Papua
province, despite their refusal to defend themselves during
the five-month trial.

Prosecutors alleged the men _ all indigenous Papuans _ were
members of a small rebel army fighting for a separate state
in the resource-rich province.

They are accused of shooting Rickey Lynn Spier, 44, of
Littleton, Colorado, and Leon Edwin Burgon, 71, of Sun
River, Oregon, in 2002 as their car headed down a road
toward the mine owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold
Mine Inc.

Prosecutors have demanded between eight and 20 years in
prison for the men, who issued no defense plea, claiming
their trial was unfair.

``We haven't been able to meet with our clients in jail for
the last month,'' said Johnson Panjaitan, one of their
lawyers, predicting a guilty verdict. ``Can you imagine that
a client cannot communicate with his lawyer?''

Officials at the heavily-guarded Central Jakarta District
Court were not available to comment on the allegations.

The attack originally complicated ties between Washington
and Jakarta amid suspicions that Indonesian security forces
guarding the mine were involved. But an FBI investigation
found no evidence linking soldiers or police to the
killings.

Antonius Wamang _ indicted by a U.S. grand jury in 2004 for
the murders _ acknowledged being a Papuan separatist and
said shot at the convoy because be thought it was carrying
soldiers, Panjaitan said.

But the other men, accused of providing logistics for the
attack, maintain they were innocent civilians.

``We had nothing to do with these shootings,'' said Ishak
Onawame, 54, as he was brought in handcuffs to the court's
detainment house. ``Our trial has been manipulated for the
interests of two countries, Indonesia and the United
States.''

Dozens of Papuan student protesters gathered outside,
chanting ``Release them! Release them!''

Washington earlier said Indonesian cooperation with the FBI
probe into the killings was a condition last year of
restoring military contacts with Jakarta frozen since 1999
due to human rights concerns.

Many in Washington were keen to re-engage with the military,
which they see as vital in the country's fight against al-
Qaida-linked Islamic militants.

----------------------------------------

Joyo Indonesia News/Pantau Tuesday, 
7 November 2006

Exclusive Report

MURDER AT MILE 63

Part One: A Trip to the Big City

By S. Eben Kirksey and Andreas Harsono

The U.S. Congress blocked moves to restore military aid to
Indonesian following reports of its military’s involvement
in the 2002 murder of American school teachers in Timika.
The blockade was released after the indictment of Antonius
Wamang by the Department of Justice. In May 2006 the Bush
Administration announced a new Pentagon program that will
provide up to $19 million to supplement existing programs
for building Indonesian military capacity. Questions remain
about whether Wamang acted alone. Where did Wamang obtain
bullets? Did Indonesian military agents have prior knowledge
of the attack? Why did the Indonesian military sue
reporters, doctor the crime scene, intimidate witnesses, and
conduct a sham reconstruction?

This report—prepared for the Joyo Indonesia News Service and
Pantau Foundation—is based on internal police documents,
court records, eyewitness accounts, and exclusive interviews
with Wamang. A verdict in the trial of Wamang and six
alleged co-conspirators is expected today. The key points of
evidence presented in the trial are equivocal. The
Indonesian government has rejected an international role in
helping bring the murderers of human rights campaigner Munir
Thalib to justice. But Indonesia has partnered with the Bush
Administration to prosecute some of the alleged murderers at
Mile 63. The rigorous standards of evidence that would have
been applied in a US court room have not been upheld.

“Murder at Mile 63” will be released as a three part series:
1) A Trip to the Big City, 2) The Ambush, and 3) The Cover-
Up.

A TRIP TO THE BIG CITY

When Antonius Wamang boarded a Garuda jet in September 2001
at Timika’s Moses Kilangin airport in Papua, his heart was
pounding—he was on a mission to get weapons and ammunition
in Jakarta (1).  Born in the remote highland village of
Beoga in 1972, Anton was a young boy when Indonesian
Brigadier-General Imam Munandar launched Operation Eliminate
(Operasi Kikis) in the highlands of Papua (2).  Anti-
personnel Daisy Cluster bombs, mortars and machine-guns were
used against Papuan villagers who were armed with bows and
arrows (3).  Nearly 30 years later, Anton found what he
thought was an opportunity to buy arms in hopes of fighting
back against the Indonesian military.

Anton flew to Jakarta alone and was met at Cengkareng
airport by Agus Anggaibak, a sandalwood (kayu gaharu) dealer
with close ties to the Indonesian military (4).  According
to Janes Natkime, a Beoga native who has known Anton since
elementary school and currently heads the Warsi Foundation
in Timika, “Agus Anggaibak set up everything, he lobbied the
officers and arranged the money” (5).  Anggaibak, Natkime
and Anton Wamang are members of the Amungme tribe, a
relatively small group where almost everyone knows everyone
else. Anggaibak had earlier visited Wamang’s group in their
jungle hideout, encouraging them to raise money to buy guns.
He brought a rifle with him. Anggaibak showed off this
weapon in Wamang’s camp: “MODEL P88-9, Col 9 mmp AK, Made in
Germany” (6).  On 11 January 2006 FBI agents detained “Agus
Anggaibak”—a 15-year-old teenager whose real name is Johni
Kacamol—and handed him over to Indonesian authorities. The
real Agus Anggaibak remains free. In fact, after the 2002
ambush, he become a member of the Timika district parliament
as a representative of the Golkar party. Johni Kacamol is in
prison in Jakarta.

Anggaibak promised to help Anton obtain weapons like the one
he was carrying, as well as other guns, from arms dealers in
Jakarta (7).  Like all groups in West Papua’s TPN (Tentara
Pembebasan Nasional, National Liberation Army)—a group
without a clear hierarchical command structure founded in
1971—Anton’s group was poorly armed. Janes Natkime, Wamang’s
long-time acquaintance, commented, “Papua also wants to be
independent. But we have no weapons. We have no (arms)
industry. We are not skilled at making arms. All weapons
belong to the NKRI” (8).  NKRI stands for Negara Kesatuan
Republik Indonesia or the Unitary State of the Indonesian
Republic. It is a name frequently used by Indonesia’s
nationalists, including politicians and military officers,
to emphasize Indonesia’s territorial sovereignty.

Anton’s group, according to the prosecutor’s indictment and
several witnesses, only had three aging weapons: an SS1, an
M16, and a bolt-action Mauser. Following several weeks of
intensive gold panning, and kayu gaharu collecting, Anton’s
group raised money to purchase guns. Anggaibak departed for
Jakarta, with an advance payment from Anton, where he began
working on securing a deal. Anton later flew to meet
Anggaibak. He brought sacks of kayu gaharu worth more than
500 million Rupiah (9).  On the international market kayu
gaharu fetches even higher prices. This rare wood is used to
make incense and perfume.

Initially Anggaibak and Anton stayed in Mess Perwira Polri—a
police guest house in Jakarta. A kayu gaharu middleman from
Makassar named Mochtar introduced Anggaibak and Anton to
some Indonesian army and police officers. Well aware of how
to exploit internal conflicts within the Indonesian security
forces—-conflicts that had resulted in a April 1996 shooting
match between different branches of the military in the
Timika airport (10)-—Wamang hoped to secure weapons from one
faction in hopes of attacking another faction.
Sergeant Puji, a police officer, befriended Anton while he
was staying at the guest house. Sergeant Puji took Anton and
Anggaibak on trips around Jakarta. They toured around while
Puji asked them about the activities of Papuan guerillas in
the Timika area. Puji said that he wanted to help the
movement: he presented Anton with a gift of six magazines of
bullets (a total of 180 bullets) that could be used in
Anton’s M16 or SS1 rifles. Sergeant Puji also gave Anton
bullets for his Mauser (11).  One night in the Mess Perwira
Polri, Sergeant Puji showed Anton fifteen M-16 rifles. Anton
says he paid 250 million Rupiah for these guns and Sergeant
Puji held on to them for safe keeping (12). Later Anton
moved to Hotel Djody at Jalan Jaksa 35, a backpacker hostel
in downtown Jakarta (13).  He probably checked in using a
false name. “Mochtar was a regular guest here. Maybe, yes,
Wamang also stayed here but he used another name,” said
Herry Blaponte, the hotel’s front office staff. Blaponte
said Mochtar had regularly made sandalwood business deals
with his Papuan guests. Hotel staff remember Mochtar as
having a stocky build and being a “dandy”—their memories of
him are not fond, however, since he left without paying his
bill. Blaponte and hotel security staff Mahmud Trikasno told
Indonesian chief detective Dzainal Syarief that they did not
remember Anton’s stay at their hotel. “I don’t remember his
face,” said Trikasno. Four cleaning service staff also did
not recognize Anton’s picture (14).

One afternoon at Hotel Djody, according to Wamang, a
stranger approached him and Anggaibak. “I hear you are
looking to buy guns”, Wamang quoted the stranger as saying.
Eventually Anggaibak admitted that they were. The
stranger—Captain Hardi Heidi—said that he was an Indonesia
soldier from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city in
eastern Java. Eventually Anton paid for four additional guns
from Hardi Heidi: two AKs and two M-16s. As with Sergeant
Puji, Anton arranged for Hardi Heidi to keep the weapons for
safe keeping until he was ready to depart for Timika (15).

Hardi Heidi introduced Anggaibak and Anton to Sugiono, an
active duty Kopassus officer who pledged to help transport
the weapons to Timika (16).  They all traveled to different
cities in Java together—to Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya
(17).  Sugiono and Hardi Heidi had interests similar to
Sergeant Puji’s—they wanted to hear about TPN activities
around Timika.

On September 21, Anton visited 40 Amungme and Kamoro tribal
leaders, who had just returned from negotiations with
Freeport McMoran at its New Orleans head office. They were
making a stop in Jakarta and stayed at Hotel Mega Matra.
Excited to see many fellow Amungme, Anton visited the hotel
a number of times. The leaders were negotiating a profit
sharing deal with Freeport’s management. “We left America
one day before 9/11. We heard about 9/11 when we were
checking in into our Hong Kong transit hotel,” said delegate
Eltinus Omaleng (18).

Anton asked many of the delegates for money. He bragged
about how he had secured weapons that were ready to be
shipped to Papua. Janes Natkime gave Anton 1.5 million
Rupiah, “Five days later he came back to the hotel, saying
that the ship had been rerouted to Aceh” (19).

Anton said that he had paid Sugiono nearly 50 million Rupiah
to ship the guns to Timika. After a chartered boat was
loaded with the weapons, Anton claims that Sugiono and Hardi
Heidi gave him the slip. The ship motored away with Anton
standing alone on the dock (20). Just prior to the boat’s
departure, Anton says that he overheard a conversation
between Hardi Heidi and his wife. Anton quotes the wife as
saying: “We should sell these in Aceh” (21).

After calling associates back in Timika for more money,
Anton traveled alone back to Timika on the Kelimutu
passenger ship (22).  Anton arrived in Timika with only the
bullets that Sergeant Puji had given him (23). His extensive
contacts with Sergeant Puji, with Sugiono, with Hardi Heidi,
and with Mochtar had given him moments of hope. But
ultimately his mission to obtain guns had failed. Instead,
Anton gave agents of the Indonesian security forces almost
12 months advance notice that a TPN attack was being planned
in Timika.

The Washington Post reported that senior Indonesian military
officers, including then commander-in-chief Endriartono
Sutarto, “discussed an operation against Freeport before an
ambush near its mine in Papua” (24).  Did Indonesian
military agents use their advanced knowledge of Anton
Wamang’s plans to guide his attack? Citing a United States
government official, and other sources who had knowledge of
U.S. intelligence reports, the The Washington Post reported
that the Indonesian military may have staged the attack with
the aim of “discrediting a Papuan separatist group” (25).

The Indonesian military subsequently sued The Washington
Post for libel. Jakarta newspapers reporting on Indonesian
military involvement in the attack were also sued: Koran
Tempo and Suara Karya (26).  The Washington Post settled out
of court in February 2003 (27).  Leaked reports on the FBI
investigation’s findings later confirmed intelligence
reports. “It’s no longer a question of who did it,” a senior
U.S. official familiar with the investigation, told AP in
March 2004. “It’s only a question of how high up this went
within the chain of command,” said the official (28).  The
U.S. Embassy later issued a formal denial that the FBI found
evidence of Indonesian military involvement.

In the time leading up to the ambush in August 2002, there
were regular contacts between Wamang’s group and local
Indonesian military agents. Are all the weapons used in the
attack accounted for? Were there other shooters at the scene
of the crime? Part Two of “Murder at Mile 63: The Ambush”
will address these questions.

* * *

S. Eben Kirksey (ebenkirksey at cruzio.com) has conducted over
17 months of anthropological research in Papua during six
separate trips (1998-2005). He earned a M.Phil. from the
University of Oxford and is completing his Ph.D. at UC Santa
Cruz. Currently he is a Visiting Professor at Deep Springs
College, California.

Andreas Harsono (aharsono at cbn.net.id) is a journalist
working for the Pantau Foundation in Jakarta. He currently
writes a political travelogue, “From Sabang to Merauke:
Debunking the Myth of Indonesian Nationalism.” He received
the Nieman Fellowship on Journalism from Harvard University
in 1999.

FOOTNOTES

1) Antonius Wamang, tape-recorded interview with SEK on 25
March 2005 in Kwamki Lama, Timika; interview with AH on 8-9
October 2006 in Jakarta.

2) S. Sularto, 'Mereka yang Terpaksa Mengungsi', Kompas
(Jakarta), 28 November 1977, pp. 7-8; Carmel Budiardjo and
Liem Sioe Liong, West Papua, pp. 119-20; Robin Osborne,
Indonesia's Secret War, p. 145.

3) Budiardjo and Liem, West Papua, pp. 119-24. 4) Wamang, 25
March 2005; John Rumbiak, SEK interview, 24 February 2005,
Washington DC.

5) Janes Natkime, AH interview 6 November 2006. Original
quote: “Agus Anggaibak yang atur, lobby tentara, Agus yang
setel semua, atur uang.”

6) An activist at the camp copied the specifications of the
gun down in his notebook. SEK saw this notebook, 24 March
2005 in Timika.

7) Wamang, 25 March 2005; John Rumbiak, 24 February 2005.

8) Janes Natkime, 6 November 2006.Origninal quote: “Papua
juga mau merdeka. Tapi tidak punya senjata. Tidak punya
pabrik. Kitorang tidak punya skill bikin senjata. Semua
senjata punya NKRI.”

9) Wamang, 25 March 2005, Timika; Deminikus Bebari interview
with AH 13 October 2006 in Jakarta.

10) R. Lowry, The Armed Forces of Indonesia (St. Leonards,
N.S.W., 1997), Ch. 5

11) Wamang, 25 March 2005, Timika.

12) Wamang, 25 March 2005, Timika.

13) Wamang, 25 March 2005, Timika.

14) Herry Blaponte and Mahmud Trikasno, AH interview, 6
November 2006. Police chief commissioner Dzainal Syarief,
who headed the Indonesian police investigation on the Mile
63 case, declined to comment for this story. AH showed
Wamang’s photo to five other hotel employees. None
remembered his face. They said they have many guests. The
guest book does not show either Wamang’s name nor his alias
P. Amug.

15) Wamang, 25 March 2005, Timika

16) John Rumbiak, SEK interview, 24 February 2005. Wamang,
25 March 2005.

17) Wamang, 25 March 2005; John Rumbiak, 24 February 2005.

18) Eltinus Omaleng, AH interview in Jakarta, 6 November
2006.

19) Like Papua, Aceh is an Indonesian province seeking
independence from Indonesia. It declared independence in
December 1976. Aceh guerilla fighters regularly attacked
Indonesian military positions. In 2001, some of the worst
attacks happened in Aceh. Arms circulated easily in Aceh.
Only in August 2005, the Free Acheh guerillas agreed to sign
a peace agreement with Jakarta.

20) Wamang, 25 March 2005; 8-9 October 2006.

21) Wamang, 25 March 2005; 8-9 October 2006. Indonesian
original: “Harus kami jual ke Aceh.”

22) Wamang, 25 March 2005, Timika.

23) Wamang, 25 March 2005, Timika. 24) Ellen Nakashima and
Alan Sipres, “Indonesia Military Allegedly Talked of
Targetting Mine”, The Washington Post, 2 November 2002.

25) Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipres, “Indonesia Military
Allegedly Talked of Targetting Mine”, The Washington Post, 2
November 2002.

26) “Pangdam Ajukan Gugatan Baru”, Harian Cenderawasih Pos,
17Juni 2003.

27) Klarifikasi The Washington Post,
http://www.tni.mil.id/news.php?q=dtl&id=344 25 February
2003.

28) Slobodan Lekic, “Indonesian Army Ordered Deadly Ambush”,
Associated Press, 3 March 2004.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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